Dan Murrie and Sharon Kelly of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy

Recent efforts to reform the forensic sciences have emphasized the need for changing the case processing procedures for fingerprints in ways that will allow for verification of findings, and reduce opportunities for cognitive biases and other problematic human factors. However, the field currently lacks even basic, descriptive research on large-scale case processing. Therefore we present case processing data (n ~ 2000 cases) from a large forensic science center, including data regarding the rate and outcome of verification procedures. Baseline case processing data sheds light on the mixture of cases that analysts review and verify, and will permit further assessment of any changes to the procedures used at the laboratory, such as blind verifications in the future.